Department of Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Iqbal Mahmud, PhD

Dr. Iqbal Mahmud Headshot

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77710
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB 250)
Phone: (+1) 409-880-8262
Email: imahmud1@lamar.edu

Lab website:  Mahmud Research Group 

Biography

Iqbal Mahmud is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he developed and applied multiomics, including lipidomics in cancer metabolism, and uncovered novel role of DAXX protein in de novo lipogenesis. 
He is an alumnus of the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh's premier public university. Following his undergraduate studies, he served as a researcher at icddr,b, the nation's leading research institute, and later as a Lecturer of Biology at Dhaka City College. He pursued advanced studies at Claflin University and the University of Florida, where he earned his PhD in Medical Sciences.
Later, he served as Senior Research Scientist and Data Science Team Leader at The Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the world's top-ranked cancer research institute.

Education

  • Postdoctoral Associate (2018-2021) - Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Projects: “Cancer metabolism and malnutrition through multiomics.” Supervisor: Timothy J. Garrett, PhD
  • Ph.D., Medical Sciences (2014–2018) – Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL. Dissertation: “Multi-omics to Dissect the Role of Death-Domain Associated Protein (DAXX) in Cancer Metabolism.” Supervisor: Daiqing Liao, PhD
  • MS., Biotechnology (2012–2014) – Department of Biology/Chemistry, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC. Supervisors: Arezue Boroujerdi, PhD and Kamal Chowdhury, PhD
  • MS., Molecular Genetics (2009-2010) – Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • BS., Botany, with Honors (2008) – Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Work History

  1. September 2026 – present: Assistant Professor, Lamar University, College of Arts and Sciences
  2. October 2022 – August 2026: Senior Research Scientist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  3. January 2022 – September 2022: Research Scientist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  4. September 2018 – December 2021: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Florida Health, University of Florida
  5. August 2014 – August 2018: Graduate Research Assistant, University of Florida, College of Medicine, UF Health Cancer Center
  6. May 2014 – August 2018: Summer Research Fellow, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  7. August 2012 – May 2014: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Biology, Claflin University, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
  8. July 2011 – July 2012: Lecturer of Biology, Dhaka City College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  9. February 2009 – June 2011: Research Assistant, Parasitology Laboratory, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Research Interests

  1. Lipid Metabolism and Cancer: I investigate how lipid metabolic rewiring drives tumorigenesis across cancers, including the DAXX–SREBP axis in lipogenesis, SPOP/CHD1/SREBP2/ACSL4/GOT1 interactions in prostate cancer, OGR1 and CerS2 in breast cancer, and CES1's role in hepatocellular carcinoma metabolism.
  2. Obesity, Adipokine Signaling, and Cancer: My work examines how metabolic signaling links obesity to cancer risk, focusing on chemerin (RARRES2) and its receptors (GPR1, CMKLR1, ARRB2) in renal cell carcinoma, and shared circuitry (MMP14, DRP1) connecting obesity and childhood malnutrition.
  3. Metabolic and Vascular Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease: I study metabolic and mechanotransduction pathways in vascular disease, including hepatocyte SHMT2's role in atherosclerosis, endothelial LATS1/2–CD38 signaling in disturbed blood flow, and mitochondrial dysfunction underlying moyamoya-like cerebrovascular disease.
  4. Microbiome and Immuno-Metabolism: My research explores how host-microbial metabolism shapes immunotherapy response and resistance, including gut microbiome-derived tryptophan metabolites, Fabp7-driven ferroptosis resistance in tumors, Lactobacillus iners-mediated chemoradiation resistance, and lipid metabolism in graft-versus-host disease.
  5. Lipid Biochemistry and Organelle Dynamics: I study systems-level lipid biochemistry — saturation index, acyl chain length, and organelle-specific lipid pools — to understand mitochondrial, peroxisomal, and ER-Golgi membrane dynamics, lipid droplet biology, and regulated cell death mechanisms like ferroptosis and autophagy.
  6. Analytical and Computational Technology Development: I develop novel mass spectrometry platforms (PSI-MS, SF-MS) for rapid biomarker detection, alongside computational tools like xPEDITE, TARO, and IROA DUAL-MSTUS for multiomics data integration and reproducible metabolite biomarker discovery.

Teaching Experience

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (Fall 2017–Fall 2019)
  • Graduate level: Big Data in Biomedical Sciences (Core course – GMS6001)
Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC (Fall 2012–Spring 2014)
  • Undergraduate level: Genetics, Biotechnology Lab, Chemistry, and Biochemistry
Dhaka City College, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Summer 2010–Summer 2012)
  • College level: General Biology, including Botany, Zoology, and Microbiology

Scholarly Activity

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Mahmud I, Wei B, Veillon L, Tan L, Martinez S, Tran B, Raskind A, de Jong F, Akbani R, Weinstein JN, Beecher C, Lorenzi PL.  Ion suppression correction and normalization for non-targeted metabolomics.Nature Communications. (2025) 16:1347.
  • Mahmud I, Tian G, Wang J, Hutchinson TE, Kim BJ, Awasthee N, Hale S, Meng C, Moore A, Zhao L, Lewis JE, Waddell A, Wu S, Steger JM, Lydon ML, Chait A, Zhao LY, Ding H, Li JL, Purayil HT, Huo Z, Daaka Y, Garrett TJ, Liao D. DAXX drives de novo lipogenesis and contributes to tumorigenesis. Nature Communications.2023 Apr 12;14(1):1927. 
  • Mahmud I, Liao D. DAXX in cancer: phenomena, processes, mechanisms, and regulation. Nucleic Acids Res. 47, 7734–7752 (2019). 
  • Lee H, Horbath A, Kondiparthi L, Meena JK, Lei G, Dasgupta S, Liu X, Zhuang L, Koppula P, Li M, Mahmud I, Wei B, Lorenzi PL, Keyomarsi K, Poyurovsky MV, Olszewski K, Gan B.
    Cell cycle arrest induces lipid droplet formation and confers ferroptosis resistance. Nature Communications.2024 Jan 2;15(1):79. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44412-7.PMID: 38167301.
  • Nicholas Blazanin, Xiaobing Liang, Mahmud I, Eiru Kim, Lin Tan, Nazanin Esmaeili Anvar, Waikin Chan, Min Jin Ha, Rosalba Minelli, Michael Peoples, Philip Lorenzi, Travar Hart, Yonathan Lissanu.Therapeutic modulation of rock overcomes metabolic adaption to oxphos inhibition and suppresses tumor growth. Nature Communications. 2024 (Under revision). DOI: 1101/2024.09.16.613317.
  • Kaw A, Wu T, Starosolski Z, Zhou Z, Pedroza AJ, Majumder S, Duan X, Kaw K, Pinelo JEE, Fischbein MP, Lorenzi PL, Tan L, Martinez SA, Mahmud I, Devkota L, Taegtmeyer H, Ghaghada KB, Marrelli SP, Kwartler CS, Milewicz DM. Augmenting Mitochondrial Respiration in Immature Smooth Muscle Cells with an ACTA2Pathogenic Variant Prevents Moyamoya-like Cerebrovascular Disease. Nature Communications. 2025 Jul 2;16(1):6105.
  • Xiong Y, Tan L, Chan WK, Zhu D, Zhang H, Yin ES, Donepudi SR, Ding J, Wei B, Tran B, Martinez S, Mahmud I, Waghu FH, Stewart HI, Hermanson DJ, Akbani R, Weinstein JN, Chen J, Lorenzi PL. High-throughput multi-organ proteomics workflow for drug efficacy and toxicity analysis.Nature Communications. 2026 Feb 9;17(1):3505. 
  • Chen F, Li Q, Gu Q, Leo J, Liang X, Mehta N, Labanca E, Shepherd P, Mahmud I, Wang Y, Saenz FR, Phillips MM, Shi W, Meng C, Zhang J, Frigo DE, Lu Y, Gan B, Zhao D. Divergent roles of SPOP and CHD1 in ACSL4 regulation reveal context-dependent vulnerabilities for targeting ferroptosis. Nature Communications. 2026 Jun 30;17(1):8385.
  • Caitlyn M Gaffney, Angela M Casaril, Mahmud I, Bo Wei, Yanyan Jiang, Nathan T Fiore, Jialu Liu, Karen M Valadez, Elizabeth A Kolb, Fisher R Cherry, Lei Shi, Kenneth Dunner Jr, Philip L Lorenzi, Steven R Reiken, Peter M Grace, Rajasekaran Mahalingam, Theresa A Guise, Carolyn L Hodo, Andrew J Shepherd. Inflammatory neuropathy in mouse and primate models of colorectal cancer. Nature Communications, 2026 Aug 12, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76683-1
  • Feiyu Chen, Haoyan Li, Yin Wang, Chenling Meng, Ximing Tang, Wei Shi, Javier Leo, Jie Zhang, Vivien Van, Mahmud I, Bo Wei, Philip L Lorenzi, Maria Gabriela Raso, Boyi Gan, Di Zhao. CHD1 Loss hijacks SREBP2-mediated Cholesterol Biosynthesis to Energize SPOP-deficient Prostate Cancer and Drives Castration Resistance. Nature Cancer (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-025-00952-z.
  • Sandeep Das1, Alexandra C Finney1, Sumit Kumar Anand1, Sumati Rohilla1, Yuhao Liu2, Nilesh Pandey1, Alia Ghrayeb1,3, Dhananjay Kumar4, Kelley Nunez5, Zhipeng Liu6, Fabio Arias7, Ying Zhao2, Brenna Pearson-Gallion1, M Peyton McKinney1, Koral S E Richard1, Jose A Gomez-Vidal7, Chowdhury S Abdullah1, Elizabeth D Cockerham1, Joseph Eniafe8, Andrew D Yurochko8, Tarek Magdy1, Christopher B Pattillo4, Christopher G Kevil1,4, Babak Razani9, Md Shenuarin Bhuiyan1,4, Gretchen E Galliano10, Bo Wei11, Lin Tan11, Mahmud I11, Ida Surakka2, Minerva T Garcia-Barrio2, Philip L Lorenzi11, Eyal Gottlieb3, Eduardo Salido12, Jifeng Zhang2, A Wayne Orr1,4, Wanqing Liu13, Monica Diaz-Gavilan7, Y. Eugene Chen2, Nirav Dhanesha1, Paul T Thevenot5, Ari J Cohen5,14, Arif Yurdagul Jr1,4, Oren Rom1,4. Genetic and pharmacological targeting of hepatic oxalate overproduction ameliorates metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. Nature Metabolism.2024 Sep 27. doi: 10.1038/s42255-024-01134-4.
  • Tan SK, Mahmud I, Fontanesi F, Puchowicz M, Neumann CKA, Griswold AJ, Patel R, Dispagna M, Ahmed HH, Gonzalgo ML, Brown JM, Garrett TJ, Welford SM.Obesity-Dependent Adipokine Chemerin Suppresses Fatty Acid Oxidation to Confer Ferroptosis Resistance (2021). Cancer Discovery, DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1453.
  • Colbert LE, El Alam MB, Wang R, Karpinets T, Lo D, Lynn EJ, Harris TA, Elnaggar JH, Yoshida-Court K, Tomasic K, Bronk JK, Sammouri J, Yanamandra AV, Olvera AV, Carlin LG, Sims T, Delgado Medrano AY, Napravnik TC, O'Hara M, Lin D, Abana CO, Li HX, Eifel PJ, Jhingran A, Joyner M, Lin L, Ramondetta LM, Futreal AM, Schmeler KM, Mathew G, Dorta-Estremera S, Zhang J, Wu X, Ajami NJ, Wong M, Taniguchi C, Petrosino JF, Sastry KJ, Okhuysen PC, Martinez SA, Tan L, Mahmud I, Lorenzi PL, Wargo JA, Klopp AH. Tumor-resident Lactobacillus iners confer chemoradiation resistance through lactate-induced metabolic rewiring.Cancer cell, 2023 Nov 13;41(11):1945-1962.e11.
  • Gencel-Augusto J, Su X, Qi Y, Whitley EM, Pant V, Xiong S, Shah V, Lin J, Perez E, Fiorotto ML, Mahmud I, Jain AK, Lorenzi PL, Navin NE, Richie ER, Lozano G. Dimeric p53 Mutant Elicits Unique Tumor-Suppressive Activities through an Altered Metabolic Program. Cancer Discovery. 2023 May 4;13(5):1230-1249.
  • Wang D, Mahmud I, Thakur VS, Tan SK, Isom DG, Lombard DB, Gonzalgo ML, Kryvenko ON, Lorenzi PL, Tcheuyap VT, Brugarolas J, Welford SM. GPR1 and CMKLR1 control lipid metabolism to support development of clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Research.2024 Apr 19. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-23-2926. PMID: 38640229.
  • Mahmud I*, Lee B*, Pokhrel R, Murad R, Yuan M, Stapleton S, Bettegowda C, Jallo G, Eberhart CG, Garrett T, Perera RJ. Medulloblastoma cerebrospinal fluid reveals metabolites and lipids indicative of hypoxia and cancer-specific RNAs. Acta Neuropathologica Communications(2022) 10:25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40478-022-01326-7. (*Equally contributing first author).
  • Yuan M, Mahmud I, Katsushima K, Joshi K, Saulnier O, Pokhrel R, Lee B, Liyanage W, Kunhiraman H, Stapleton S, Gonzalez-Gomez I, Kannan RM, Eisemann T, Kolanthai E, Seal S, Garrett TJ, Abbasi S, Bockley K, Hanes J, Chapagain P, Jallo G, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Taylor MD, Eberhart CG, Ray A, Perera RJ. miRNA-211 maintains metabolic homeostasis in medulloblastoma through its target gene ACSL4 (long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase 4). Acta Neuropathol Communications. 2023 Dec 19;11(1):203. doi: 10.1186/s40478-023-01684-w.PMID: 38115140.
  • Katsushima K, Pokhrel R, Mahmud I, Yuan M, Murad R, Baral P, Zhou R, Chapagain P, Garrett T, Stapleton S, Jallo G, Bettegowda C, Raabe E, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Eberhart CG, Perera RJ.
    The oncogenic circular RNA circ_63706 is a potential therapeutic target in sonic hedgehog-subtype childhood medulloblastomas. Acta Neuropathol Communications. 2023 Mar 10;11(1):38.
  • Pillai S, Mahmud I, Mahar R, Griffith C, Langsen M, Nguyen J, Wojtkowiak JW, Swietach P, Gatenby RA, Bui MM, Merritt ME, McDonald P, Garrett TJ, Gillies RJ. Lipogenesis mediated by OGR1 regulates metabolic adaptation to acid stress in cancer cells via autophagy. Cell Reports.2022 May 10;39(6):110796. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110796.
  • Shao LJ, Elizondo F, Gao F, Lieu EL, Reddi B, Elizondo M, Mahmud I, Eckel-Mahan K, Scherer PE, Ge X, Wu H, Hartig S, Sun K.  Myeloid MMP14 couples extracellular proteolysis to inflammatory and metabolic remodeling during obesity.Cell Reports. 2026 Jul 28;45(7):117681.
  • Mahmud I, Pinto FG, Rubio VY, Lee B, Pavlovich CP, Perera RJ, Garrett TJ.Rapid Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Disease Progression Using Paper Spray Ionization Mass Spectrometry. Analytical chemistry, 2021, 93, 22, 7774–7780.
  • Mahmud I, Kabir M, Haque R, Garrett TJ. Decoding the Metabolome and Lipidome of Child Malnutrition by Mass Spectrometric techniques: Present Status and Future perspectives. Analytical chemistry, 91(23):14784-14791 (2019). 
  • Mahmud I, Frederico G. Pinto, Timothy J. Garrett. Rapid noninvasive classification of prostatic disease using paper spray ionization mass spectrometry (PSI-MS)-based non-targeted metabolomics. Analytical chemistry, 2026 May 12;98(18):13203-13210.(5Co-corresponding author).
  • Mahmud I*, Pinto FG*, Rubio VY, Máquina ADV, Furtado Durans AF, Neto WB, Garrett TJ. Data-Driven Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy in Paper Spray Ionization Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics for Rapid Detection of Prostate Cancer.Analytical chemistry, 2022, 94, 4, 1925–1931. (*Equally contributing first author). 
  • Mahmud I1&4*, Taylor A. Harmon2, Laurel E. Meke3, Timothy J. Garrett1,3*. Discrepancies in Biomarker Identification in Different Peak-Picking Strategies in Untargeted Metabolomics Analyses of Cells, Tissues, and Biofluids. Journal of Proteome Research, 2025 Dec 5;24(12):6023-6032. (*Co-corresponding author).
  • Mahmud I1,4,5, Wai-Kin Chan1,4, Karen Yannell2, Cate Simmermaker2, Genevieve Van de Bittner2, Linfeng Wu2, Daniel Chan1, Sheher Moshin2, Yiwei Liu1, John Sausen2, John N. Weinstein1, and Philip L. Lorenzi1,3,5. Single-sample, multi-omic mass spectrometry for investigating mechanisms of drug toxicity. Journal Proteome Research. 2025 Sep 5;24(9):4538-4546. (5Co-corresponding author).
  • Mahmud I*, Pinto FG*, Harmon TA, Rubio VY, Garrett TJ. Rapid Prostate Cancer Noninvasive Biomarker Screening Using Segmented Flow Mass Spectrometry-Based Untargeted Metabolomics. Journal of Proteome Research, 2020 19 (5), 2080-2091. (*Equally contributing first author). 
  • Mahmud I, Garrett TJ. Mass Spectrometry techniques in Emerging Pathogens Studies: COVID-19 perspectives.  Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom.September 3, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.0c00238. (Top accessed article of 2020 by Editors of JASMS).
  • Garrett TJ, Coatsworth H*, Mahmud I*, Hamerly T, Stephenson CJ, Ayers JB, Yazd HS, Miller MR, Lednicky JA, Dinglasan RR. A chemical probe into SARS-CoV-2 modulation of host cell lipid metabolism.  Frontier in Microbiology.2023 Oct 11;14:1251065. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1251065. eCollection 2023.PMID: 37901834. (*Equally contributed first author).

Patents

  • Daiqing Liao, Mahmud I, Guimei Tian. Polypeptide inhibitor of de novo lipogenesis in cancer cells (2020). Pub. No. WO/2019/195693.

Book Chapters

  • Mahmud I, Garrett TJ. Lipidomics in Human Cancer and Malnutrition (2019). Methods in Signal Transduction series, CRC Publication, Taylor & Francis Group.

Honors and Awards

  • Outstanding Performance Award, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (2023, 2024, 2025)
  • The University of Texas MD Anderson Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center (2022)
  • Postdoctoral Career Development Award, American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) (2021)
  • Best Poster Presentation Award (Postdoctoral Trainee Category), University of Florida Health Cancer Center (2020)
  • Outstanding EPIG Project Award, Experimental Pathology Innovative Grant, University of Florida (2020)
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Florida Informatics Institute (2019)
  • Experimental Pathology Innovative Grant Award, University of Florida (2018)
  • CTSI Pilot Research Grant Award, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Florida (2018)
  • Medical Guild Research Award, College of Medicine, University of Florida (2018)
  • Outstanding International Student Academic Achievement Award, University of Florida (2017)
  • Medical Guild Advancement to Candidacy Award (Top 3 students), Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida (2017)

Professional Membership and Editorial Roles

  • Guest Editor, MDPI Biomolecules
  • Reviewer for Cell Reports, Communication Biology (Nature), Cell Reports Medicine, Metabolomics (Springer), Metabolites (MDPI), Nutrients (MDPI), Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (ACS), Healthcare (MDPI), Genes (MDPI), Journal of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (Springer), Journal of Clinical Mass Spectrometry (Elsevier), Vaccines (MDPI), and International Journal of Environmental and Public Health (MDPI)
  • Member, Metabolomics Association of North America (MANA) (2018–present)
  • Member, Metabolomics Society (2019–present)
  • Associate Member, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2016–present)
  • Member, American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) (2016–present)
  • Member, American Society for Clinical Oncology (2016–present)
  • Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2017–present)
  • Life Member, Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnologists (2017–present)